Track (element type)
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Description
Track is an element which contains genomic features (or sites). There are various implementations of tracks which provide the unified track interface for different sources including the Ensembl database, SQL database for user uploaded data, BAM files, remote DAS servers and so on.
The main function of the track is to provide a list of sites located in a specified region of a specified sequence. Each site has genomic coordinates, strand and a number of annotation fields. Also every track has a TrackViewBuilder associated with it, which controls how these sites will be drawn in the genome browser. Thanks to this, different tracks are displayed in different ways.
Most of the tracks are associated with some sequences collection. In this case you can double click on the track to open it in the genome browser. Alternatively you can first open the sequence in the genome browser, then drag the track on it to add it to the view.
Some tracks can be opened as a table document using the Open as table context action. In this case a list of all sites in the track will be displayed in tabular form with the ability to sort, filter and so on.
Some tracks also work as collections of sequences. Every sequence in this collection corresponds to a track site. These sequences can be opened in the genome browser as well.
Tracks can be imported from many different file formats including BAM, BED, GFF, VCF and many more. Tracks are used and produced by numerous analysis methods.